Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King (The Guardians, #1) by William Joyce
I adore magical origin stories. When I saw the movie Rise of the Guardians a few years back now for the first time, I fell in love with the story and the characters. Especially the character of Pitch Black. He intrigued me as someone who was never truly evil. He just wanted to be believed in. As did the other Guardians so I never understood why he was treated so harshly towards the end of the movie. I suppose because he was the "bad guy" he needed to be treated as such. Still I wanted to know more about him and about Jack. I've always considered Jack Frost to be a dear friend of mine so I'm always on the look out for any media that talks about him. So when I found out this movie were based on books, I had to track them down.
I first read the picture books and absolutely love them. The artwork and story telling truly feel magical. As do these novels. This is my second time reading them and I love them just as much as I did the first time. It's whimsical and magical. It truly makes you believe in a magic that's within all of us. I love these books. They are short and sweet and does exactly what I wanted them to do: shed more light into who Pitch truly is. Although the first book touches on who he used to be, it's the following books that really explains what happened to Pitch Black.
This book is fast and interesting. I love the characters. I think the relationship between North and Katherine is absolutely adorable. My favorite thus far! If you really want to get enraptured with a fun children's book, this is definitely worth the read. It's a book that encourages children and adults alike to believe in magic, no matter how difficult life may seem.